Commentary
The Turkish government is planning to place up to a quarter of a million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip into Kurdish areas of southeastern Turkey and the Turkish-occupied region of northern Cyprus.
This will have profound and enduring strategic consequences for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Very high-level and historically reliable sources in Turkey and Greece have revealed key planning being undertaken between the Turkish and Qatari governments and the Hamas terrorist group operating mainly out of Gaza. The intelligence includes the following:
1. Wide-ranging and extensive consultations have been taking place (as of late November) between the Turkish and Qatari Secret Services (MIT or Milli Istih-barat Teskilatı/National Intelligence Organization and Qatar State Security), with the participation of leading Hamas officials, regarding the long-running events in Gaza and the possible prospects of implementing a package of political actions of an international nature and initiative.
Among many other issues, the transfer to third countries of a significant and sufficient number of Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, particularly from the destroyed areas but also from the entire territory of the Gaza Strip in general, to relieve the humanitarian crisis that has arisen was urgently raised in the form of a thorough and resolute initiative with inexorable implications.
This is a prospect that Israel fully accepts, as Hamas officials and members, as well as a significant number of its Palestinian supporters, were, under the plan, to be removed from Gaza.
2. Turkey’s intentions, as planned by the Turkish Intelligence Service, are the “humanitarian transfer and relocation” of 200,000 to 250,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to areas in southeast Turkey, near major urban centers where the majority of the Kurdish population lives.
3. A significant portion of the Palestinian refugees are planned, under the agreement, to be resettled in areas of occupied northern Cyprus. The area selected for resettlement was the wider Famagusta area from Marathovouno to Famagusta town, with the prospect of resettlement within Famagusta town.
4. It’s noted that an unspecified number of earthquake-affected Turks from the February earthquakes have already been permanently settled in areas of the occupied portion of Cyprus.
5. Turkey, by planning the resettlement of Palestinian refugees in areas of occupied Cyprus, seeks to promote itself to the Islamic world and, by extension, financially assist them through a “Special Fund” for Palestinians. At the same time, the Palestinian resettlement issue would, it was planned, imply indirect or direct recognition of the pseudo-state of Northern Cyprus, which the Turkish state calls “the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC). The TRNC is currently recognized only by Turkey.
6. Turkey, within its multifaceted planning around the Gaza/Hamas issue, also believes that it can achieve the normalization of its relations with Israel, as the transfer of a large number of Palestinian refugees to Turkey would relieve the intense pressure, which Israel has been under over the years from the rapid growth of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip. The Turkish plan also coincided with Israel’s intentions to relocate Palestinians from its territory.
7. Turkey’s intentions include the creation of an international body through the United Nations. This would establish, under Turkey’s leadership and executive supervision, an organization mainly composed of Islamic countries but also with the participation of the European Union, which would undertake “peace initiatives” of a multilevel nature for the establishment of a “road map” for the resolution of the Palestinian problem.
Within this framework, among other initiatives, the Gaza Strip would be included in an international security and governance regime under Turkey’s leadership and with the participation of other Islamic countries in security and policing tasks. This process would, essentially, “blackmail” the wider international community, and especially the EU, into funding the program of resettlement of Palestinian refugees in Turkey and then the gradual settlement of large numbers of them into the occupied territories of the Republic of Cyprus. This event has serious political and international implications and changes all the facts of the Cyprus problem.
8. Turkey has consolidated its perceptions that Israel, through its close relations with Cyprus, wishes to acquire sufficient strategic depth, which it lacks for obvious reasons.
The resettlement of a sufficient number of Palestinian refugees in occupied northern Cyprus is now a top-secret plan of Turkey. There’s talk of a gradual transfer, with a time horizon of five years, depending on their absorption, of more than 100,000 Palestinians to the occupied territories of Cyprus, with the status of political refugee and asylum on behalf of the Turkish Cypriot pseudo-state, in the institutional framework of “statelessness,” which would have serious repercussions for the Republic of Cyprus and the EU.
At the same time, it gives Turkey a leading role and position among the Islamic countries with all that this implies internationally but also for the status of the pseudo-state, the TRNC, in occupied northern Cyprus.
9. Occupied northern Cyprus already hosts various Islamic cells friendly to Hamas, Hezbollah, and other extremist Islamic organizations. These mainly use the illegal financial institutions and means of the pseudo-state for their illegal purposes, their financial support, and management.
10. Turkey’s intentions also include the proposal to create a “humanitarian corridor” from the ports of the occupied territories of northern Cyprus to the Gaza Strip, as opposed to—and in competition with—the proposal of the Republic of Cyprus government to the international community. Turkey’s proposal concerns mainly Islamic states, to whose participation Turkey will give the character of an implicit recognition of the status of the pseudo-state of occupied northern Cyprus.
An aerial view shows blocks of buildings leveled by Israeli strikes in the Zahra district on the southern outskirts of Gaza City on Nov. 27, 2023. Yahya Hassouna/AFP via Getty Images
Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus presently receives no formal aid from any international organization. However, banks from Iran and other countries operate there discreetly or under cover, including banks from such states as North Korea and other countries hostile to the West. There are also banks of the unrecognized state of northern Cyprus. These institutions, as well as many casinos in the occupied zone, launder Islamist funds obtained from illegal activities or to disguise aid to them from Islamic countries.
The Islamist mafia and terrorism networks have their financial bases and training sites in occupied northern Cyprus.
Several Islamic universities from Iran and other Islamic countries are also based in occupied northern Cyprus. The Iranian “students” in occupied northern Cyprus number more than 10,000. All this is known to the intelligence services of the West, but no one speaks openly on the subject. Within this framework and notwithstanding the historical Turkish–Iranian animosity, smuggling between Turkey and Iran, according to media reporting, often reaches $80 billion per year.
Meanwhile, U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson, speaking in Istanbul, said in late November that the United States was concerned about Hamas’s ability to receive financial aid from Turkey. Mr. Nelson noted that Hamas fundraising in Turkey possibly violated Turkish law.
The United States had imposed sanctions on several entities and individuals in Turkey in an effort to curb funding for Hamas after it launched a military attack against Israeli civilian targets on Oct. 7.
Mr. Nelson said Turkey had been complicit in Hamas’s earlier efforts to raise money from donors, charities, and nonprofit organizations. He noted that even if Turkey considered Hamas to be a legitimate organization, the organization could still be violating Turkish laws.
“Turkey has enough capacity to deal with this problem [using] its own law enforcement agencies, regardless of U.S. sanctions,” he said.
Mr. Nelson also raised the possibility of new U.S. sanctions against Turkish organizations suspected of helping Russia trade goods on the sanctions lists.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
